EDITED: I may be wrong about the name here. It looks like "ROMP" may be more of a model thing than a name. It goes by Rover EZ microphone. END EDIT.

They advertise it as an internal mic for their Rover mini travel guitar, but their website also says that it can be used for any guitar! I contacted Washburn and they confirmed it.

Yes, it requires you to drill 1 hole - the mic IS the end-pin and strap peg and the cable plug. But it's just about $30 (was I not supposed to say it?) and it's a condenser mic. And it seems like a much easier installation than some other internals (especially thinking about battery replacements down the road).

I used to have a "mic-in-tuner" by Wittman, which was a really neat little gadget that clipped to a brace inside the guitar. I liked it, but I had to pay a tech to install it and changing batteries was a pain, especially if you have big hands. Drilling an end-pin hole is easier.

I'll be ordering this mic anyway (how bad can it be, I'm not recording), but I was wondering if anyone else's tried it.

Well, it's been about a month since I had this thing installed... I plugged it at the store into a nice acoustic amp, but it seemed to have VERY low gain, so all I've been getting was some bass and then FEEDBACK. I figured that maybe the batteries are low, so decided to try that later. There was no going back - worst case scenario I would end up with a $30 endpin, which was the risk I was willing to take.

After that, changing strings I realized that the gooseneck mic was pointed towards the back, which in part explains the problem. I adjusted it to point towards the soundhole and later tried it with an electric little amp I borrowed. Again, the sound was a bit better, but still very low gain. I don't own an amp or a PA, so I had to wait again...

After all I had a chance to plug it into a normal size PA - a Yamaha EMX2000 powered mixer and 2 Yamaha 15" plus horn monitors (500W speakers). At first I was getting the same result - very low gain. Then I turned up the gain knob on the mixer's input channel and finally got normal sound.

All in all I got electric band sound level and very good acoustic tone, far better than any piezo. I really don't like piezo's and that's why I originally tried internal mics (but they're usually expensive) and that's also why I tried Washburn's little "Romp".

I would say that for the money it's quite a gadget. I would also say that it needs a little active DI box, like maybe a Tech 21 Acoustic DI, something that will amplify it further. I hate having batteries in guitars and prefer a DI box which can be powered from phantom power (or battery).

For me this was the best budget option and I'm happy with the sound and didn't have to cut up the guitar much either.